MTA Chairman Jay Walder Will Quit on October 21

Well, that took what, two years? According to the MTA Twitter, the man who was supposed to come in from London to save our mangled public transport systems is resigning — effective three months from now. Jay Walder is set to take over a similar post in Hong Kong, the Times reports. No doubt he’ll have more fun there — no one ever said running the MTA wasn’t a thankless job — but Walder’s mostly-voluntary exit comes as Governor Andrew Cuomo focuses on taking further control of every part of state government. Walder’s tenure was too brief (and the prospects for replacement too unknown) to say whether the change will ultimately be good or bad. But Cuomo’s driving the state’s train, in every respect (Sorry! Couldn’t help it!). In the meantime, looks like we won’t be seeing his original stated goals of different fares for nights and weekends, and no-swipe access devices that are directly linked to credit cards. Still, Jay, thanks for those automated train clocks. No,seriously.